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Toshiba SD-P1500 Portable DVD Player

Toshiba SD-P1500 Portable DVD Player

List Price: $1,099.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Wish I could hear it...
Review: I bought the SD-P1500 for a great price through another online vendor and was very excited to try it out. We took it on a long car ride and found the screen to be excellent, but the built-in speakers had a limited volume range. I was willing to overlook that shortcoming as I imagined using headsets or connecting to a TV primarily anyway.

But, less than a week later, when using it on a plane the same volume limitation occurred. I could NOT hear anything except VERY FAINT dialogue and the occasional sound effect. On a layover, I spent money on "noise reduction" headsets. Again, to no avail. No matter what DVD I put in, neither I nor my traveling companion could hear the dialogue or music while flying.

On the ground with no engine noise, the device is not exactly perfect either. It was very finnicky about the DVD's it would play. The first disc I tried (Phenomenon) would not "read". I cleaned the disk, looking for obvious reasons, but still had no luck. I encountered the same problem with another disc (Dangerous Liaisons) which was double sided with widescreen and full-screen versions. The full-screen version could be played, the widescreen could not.

Finally one last problem, which may or may not be related to this device, was output to a TV. I tried hooking it up to a TV in a hotel room without any luck. The TV sensed the connection, but I could never get any picture or sound. Granted this may have been a problem with the TV and not the device. I did not try it again when I returned home.

I am returning the device to the e-tailer from whence it came. I wish I had better news, but I have to give this device a big-thumbs-down.

Beware.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Great Picture, what sound?
Review: I bought this player at a local retail store because the picture was fantastic. i didn’t use it right away because we were planning a trip to the beach on the weekend. i figured a good movie would keep my passengers preoccupied during the 2+ hour drive. It would have worked too if only the volume on the player allowed a person to hear instead of having to use the caption feature. the player was turned all the way up (10) using headphones and still no luck!! i took that one back figuring that there must be a problem with that particular unit. WRONG, the next one i in the exchange was just as bad. we took it to Vegas and it was even worse trying to use it on a plane!!! we tried playing just a music CD and the volume was fine (plenty loud at anything over 5) but a DVD? forget about it!! i wouldn’t buy this unit again, the one i have is going back to get a refund. ill wait till the next generation comes out before i think about buying another one. for ... you would think that the sound would be as good as the picture. not hardly.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great player - poor sound...
Review: I bought this portable DVD player for the primary purpose of watching DVD movies on the plane when I travel. I tried the player at home alone and everything seemed great. When I recently used the player on a plane however I was very disappointed that the sound wouldn't go any louder. The background noise of being on a plane washed out the dialogue. I could hear the sound effects but had to keep pressing the headphones into my ears to hear the dialogue. Very, annoying and sometimes painful.

I did find a solution to this problem however. You can buy a headphone amplifier. It is a small device that... plugs into the headphone jack on the side of the DVD player and amplifies the sound as far as you need it to go. Another great thing is that this device also splits the amplified signal to 3 separate headphone jacks so others can listen. I came across this amplifier and bought it right away. The device is called a Boostaroo. You can find it on Boostaroo.com

Other than the sound being too low the player was great. The picture was fantastic and I've really been waiting for a portable DVD player with component output. And, you can view the screen from virtually any angle.

It would have gotten five stars if it wasn't for the sound. Even though I was able to remedy the problem, I... expected more...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A great machine
Review: I have been looking at other portable DVD players made by Sony, Pioneer, Sharp and Panasonic and finally chose Toshiba SD-P1500. Yes, Panasonic's 9" model is bigger but the picture quality is not as good as this one and it costs more. Why did I choose this machine?

1. I need a portable machine that can play DVD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R and VCD. Sony machines can't play VCD (Video CD) so bye bye to Sony machines. Other machines may not be able to play home-made Video CD movies on CD-Rs. I have not tried them all in local stores therefore I don't want to risk buying something that I don't know about. This Toshiba claimed to be able to play everything (just like Sharp but Sharp's 8" model discontinued).
2. This machine is inexpensive for its features and the 8" screen.

Next, I would like to tell you my first week's experience with this machine:

1. Battery life: a fully charged battery can give you 3 hours and 15 minutes uninterrupted movie watching time.
2. Display: too bad that there is no internal or external control of the display's brightness. Some dark scenes cannot be display correctly. However, when the movie's lighting is good, the picture does look very sharp and present very good color balance.
3. Sound: (...) you will know that there is a problem with this machine's sound system. Not really, let me tell you why. When you use this machine to play DTS 5.1 encoded movies, the sound is very weak even you turn the volume up all the way to 10. Why? Because there are only two speakers built-in and you are asking for an effect that only can be produced by 6 speakers or more. It is unrealistic. If you want to enjoy home thearter like sound, you should either hook this machine up with a home thearter system, or, get a good headphone. In fact, I bought a $9 Sony headphone and the sound improved a lot. If you have money to buy a noise reduction headphone, (such as a Boss model)you will be enjoying true home thearter sound. However, for people who like to watch VCDs, sound is not a problem at all! I get beautiful MTS sound with all my video CD movie collections even when my volume is set to 3 and it is still kinda too loud for me. Plane noise? without headphone: yes for DVD movies and some CD music tracks but not for VCD movies and some CDs; with headphone: no problem at all.
4. Super correction: this is an undocumented feature. I have a lot of home made video tapes and currently I turned them all into Video CDs and DVD-Rs for easy storage. Some of my early VCDS were made by a slow P-II 450 MHz machine therefore sometimes it skips a track or so and the picture looks fuzzy sometimes. However, this machine can play those VCDs without any skipping, and this is a feature called "super correction" only available in some of the high end progress scanning machines sold in Japan. So, if you have some home-made vcd movies or broken vcd/dvds, this machine will not let you down.
5. Anti-shock system: many other portable dvd players do poorly when you are watching a movie on board a boat or on your bed where you have to change your sitting position all the time. This machine allows at least a 3 seconds antishock protection so that you can enjoy your movie without interruption. I even accidentally dropped my machine from my bed to the hardwood floor and it still plays well without any problems. Quite amazing!

In summary, I would highly recommend this machine if you are looking for an affordable portable dvd player with a big screen.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THE BEST OF THE BEST
Review: I PURCHASED THE TOSHIBA SDP1500 ON WED.6/6/01 AND RECEIVED IT ON FRI. 6/8/01 BY UPS GROUND. UPON OPENINIG THE BOX AND PLUGGING THE UNIT IN AND INSERTING A DVD, ( JARASSIC PARK ) THE COLOR AND PICTURE QUALITY WAS JUST UNBELEIVABLE. THE CONTRAST,COLOR PURITY , PICTURE SHARPNESS AND BRIGHTNESS WAS ABSOLUTELY GREAT, THE BEST I'VE SEEN ON ANY PORTABLE DVD SYSTEM. THE PICTURE WAS BRIGHT ENOUGH THAT IT DIDN'T WASHOUT EVEN IN BRIGHT AMBIENT LIGHT OR WHEN STANDING AT A 30 TO 60 DEGREE ANGLE. THE PICTURE FOCUS IS VERY SHARP, NO SIGNS OF ANY GRAININESS IN PICTURE EVEN WHEN YOU ARE CLOSE UP. I HAVE LOOKED AT THE SHARP DV-L80U, IT CAN'T EVEN COME CLOSE TO THE PICTURE QUALITY OR PRICE OF THIS UNIT. THIS UNIT IS THE STATE OF THE ART OF PORTABLE DVD PLAYERS AS OF NOW, HOWEVER YOU MUST JUDGE IT FOR YOURSELF AND I DON'T HAVE A DOUBT THAT IT WILL MAKE A BELEIVER OUT OF YOU. ALL OF THE CONTROLS THAT YOU NEED TO CONTROL THIS PLAYER FOR NORMAL PLAYING ARE LOCATED ON THE PLAYER, THE REMOTE IS CREDIT CARD SIZE, IDEAL FOR TRAVEL. I WILL LEAVE THE REST FOR YOU TO EVALUATE.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Simply brilliant piece of equipment!!!!!!!
Review: I recently just bought this DVD player about 3 weeks ago and I'm just blown away with all the features and the stunning picture quality that this little thing produces. The pictures are so clear and sharp that it doesn't even look real. There are so many features that this thing has that I'm still trying to figure out what some of them do. I love the slim remote that comes with it. I also like how it has two headphone jacks instead of one. This thing is just AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! If there is anybody that wants to get I portable DVD player, i really recommend this one, especially people who travel or commute everyday. According to (...), this ranked #2 out of the top 5 DVD players out on the market (11/20/01). It was also in the top 10 most wanted gadgets for the holidays. So with stats like that, it makes me feel that the money I spent was well worth it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: AWESOME PLAYER!!!!!
Review: I've had this player three weeks and IT ROCKS! It was a replacement for my Awia DDW5 player, which was a replacement for my Panasonic PDV-L55 player. The picture is simply BREATH TAKING ! This player has more features on it than any other I've had a chance to test. As with ALL portable DVD players the speakers are limited due to their size,BUT they get the job done. If you want more sound,get yourself a pair of portable active speakers and your set! The battery life is good,(about 3hrs.10mins.) on my player, which is plenty for a movie. Screen brightness,and sharpness is about the best I've seen. Until I find a better portable dvd player out there,PLEASE KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF MY TOSHIBA 8" PORTABLE DVD PLAYER!!!!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Beautiful unit if you don't care about sound...
Review: Read the reviews about bad sound, but decided to give the unit a try anyway. Mistake! Tried it out right away and, sure enough, the sound was just no good. But, I did take a recommendation from a review and buy a Boostaroo (which I will use on the unit I did buy). Bought an Audiovox 1680 (tried the Audiovox D1700 but it skipped terribly) and I LOVE IT. It's a little heavier, but really works well. Even the picture did not seem as great as some of the reviews said it was. It IS a beautiful, lightweight unit, but that's not a good enought reason to buy this unit.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Excellent ergonomics, so-so display
Review: The Toshiba SD-P1500 is one of the best styled portable DVD players I've seen. The controls are easy to use, except for the fact that you have to tunnel into menus to access fast-forward and rewind controls. The display is very large, at 8 inches. In addition it has an excellent contrast ratio and black level. However one disappointment is the number of pixels: barely just over 100,000. For a unit of this price I would have expected closer to 300,000 pixels. The result of so few pixels? A rather large amount of moire patterns are visible.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fun Toy - Buy Quality Not Size
Review: This is a nice, full-featured DVD player that for its expanded screen size is still very portable. I did think there was some drop-off in picture quality from some smaller screen sizes I've used, but this one can be adjusted to perfect the display without too much trouble.


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